March 4, 2006
Box Score
EVANSTON, Ill.--Top-ranked Northwestern dominated from the outset en route to a 19-3 win today over the Ohio Bobcats in the Wildcats' home opener. The win improves NU to 4-0 and 1-0 in the American Lacrosse Conference while Ohio drops to 1-4 and 0-1. Kristen Kjellman led the Wildcats with five goals and one assist in the win.
The game was played at the FieldTurf facility due to the field conditions at the Thomas Athletic Complex.
The win extends NU's win streak to 25 straight and 13 straight at home dating to the end of the 2004 season.
"I think that was a really important game for us because of the automatic qualifier that the conference provides," head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said. "Ohio is always a good conference team so we're really excited. We had some good moments now heading into our game Tuesday against Penn.
"I think we started off a little rough, but we came together about 15 minutes in. We played a little rushed in the beginning but it was a good day for us overall and we had a lot of contributors."
The Wildcats kept the pressure on Ohio's defense all afternoon and held a 50-8 shot advantage-a 31-2 in the first half as NU took a 12-1 lead at halftime.
Aly Josephs and Lindsey Munday set the tone early as each tallied unassisted goals in the first 2:25 of the game. Ohio's Kari Fasick got the Bobcats on the board nine minutes in to make the score 3-1, but 'Cats reeled off 14 straight goals, four of those coming from Kjellman.
Josephs, Hannah Nielsen and Munday each had two goals while Sarah Albrecht, Meredith Frank, Hilary Bowen, Laura Clemente and Lindsay North all had one goal.
Frannie Sullivan had two goals to lead the Bobcats. OU keeper Jen Heup took the loss, recording 17 saves.
Morgan Lathrop recorded the win in goal for NU with two saves. Abby Bangers played the final 19:23 in goal and also had two saves.
NU now takes to the road this Tuesday when they take on Penn in Philadelphia, Pa. Game time is 2 p.m. CT.